perfSONAR 2.0 Released!
The perfSONAR consortium is pleased to announce the release of the next generation of perfSONAR software. The 2.0 version of the “perfSONAR bundle” contains a total of 6 software releases –including 2 Measurement Archive Services, 3 Measurement Point Services, and a Lookup service, which enables users to discover where in the networks the services have been deployed.
perfSONAR is an infrastructure for network performance monitoring, making it easier to solve end-to-end performance problems on paths crossing several networks. perfSONAR is a joint collaboration between GÉANT2, Internet2, ESnet and RNP and the wider consortium consists of more than twenty partners.
Nicolas Simar, Network Engineer at DANTE, and leader of the perfSONAR activity in Europe said “The release of perfSONAR 2.0 is a major milestone for the consortium. A truly international collaboration between partners in Europe, North and South America has developed something unique for the research networking community. perfSONAR is a powerful tool for anyone wishing to gain an end-to-end view of network measurement and monitoring. perfSONAR can be made available to any international user projects, to help them get the most out of their networking.”
An essential part of any software release is its usability, and perfSONAR is no exception. Much effort has gone into turning the research results into a toolset that can be used by engineers throughout the community. The perfSONAR User Interface (perfSONAR UI) was created to meet this need. This “browser” for perfSONAR services was created by Nina Jeliazkova and Vedrin Jeliazkov, from the Bulgarian partner, BREN. Here they outline their involvement in perfSONAR and how the perfSONAR UI was developed.
1) What are your roles in perfSONAR?
We’re developing the perfsonarUI visualisation tool as well as contributing to services specifications and performance testing.
2) How did you get involved in perfSONAR?
We got interested by perfSONAR’s approach to solving the network monitoring paradigm in a multi-domain environment. Initially we planned a rather small contribution, which was subsequently enlarged, thanks to the success of perfsonarUI.
3) What benefit do you think perfSONAR brings to research networking?
The perfSONAR suite of tools is a very sound attempt to go beyond the domain boundaries, thus providing new dimensions to network monitoring and related research.
4) What’s the future for perfSONAR?
We think that perfSONAR has a great potential to become a state-of-the-art solution for network monitoring. An important milestone would be reached when the framework becomes widely deployed in NRENs, probably followed by commercial ISPs.
5) “I’m interested in getting involved. What can I do and who should I contact?”
People interested in perfsonarUI specifics should contact perfsonar@acad.bg
A good starting point is to checkout perfsonarUI sources from the perfSONAR SVN repository here. There are extensive javadoc comments on classes and examples of how to use the classes, as well as a demo plugin which could be a basis for building specific perfsonarUI plugins.
6) What resources are there on www.perfsonar.net?
The web site presents the perfSONAR framework and provides pointers to detailed descriptions of relevant tools.
7) What does it mean to you to be involved in international projects such as GÉANT2 and perfSONAR?
We’re proud to contribute to this international effort and delighted to establish new professional contacts.
8) How did the idea of perfsonarUI (User Interface) come to you?
Well, as it often happens – the idea came spontaneously, while we were discussing different ways to get involved in the project, based on our experience in software development and network monitoring. Initially perfsonarUI was just a simple tool for testing interactions with perfSONAR services. However user demand and interest from other developers motivated us to make perfsonarUI a more generic ‘browser’ for perfSONAR services.
9) What are, according to you, the strengths of perfsonarUI?
Some of the perfsonarUI’s strengths are the platform independence and its plug-in Application Programming Interface API. Users also appreciate the fact that the tool is standalone and relatively easy to master. Of course, like the whole of the perfSONAR framework, perfsonarUI provides multi-domain monitoring capabilities, which have the potential for wider adoption.
10) What are, according to you, the interest/the potential utilisation of the interface for NOC and PERT?
NOC and PERT staff should discover the same functionalities and capabilities that they’re used to, but in a multi-domain environment. This should help them in tracing problems on end-to-end paths.
11) What is the future for perfsonarUI?
The ultimate goal for perfsonarUI is to provide support for all perfSONAR services. The plug-in API provides a convenient way for interested developers to get involved.
View and download the perfSONAR UI at http://perfsonar.acad.bg/
More general information on perfSONAR and who is involved can be found at www.perfsonar.net
Specific information relating to perfSONAR v2.0 is available here
